Holiday Shopping: The Best Times For Shopping And Saving On Holiday Gifts

The stores are already starting to put up Christmas trees and holiday decorations. ‘Tis the season to start looking at shopping for holiday giving. As always, knowledge is power and that knowledge of where to shop and when can mean big savings. If you’re wondering when the best times to shop are you’ll want to check out new data from coupons site Savings.com. The site has just published their 2013 Best Times to Buy Holiday Gifts guide. Read on to get all the details from Black Friday to Cyber Monday shopping and beyond.

In order to come up with their gift guide, Savings.com analyzed more than 1.5 million deals from 25,000 retailers and polled leading consumer and shopping experts. That’s a whole lotta data going on! So what does the research show? The data shows that there is way more to holiday shopping than just Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. For savvy shoppers, there are several other peak sale periods during which consumers should be shopping to maximize their savings. Here are the highlights of the study, organized by consumer category.

Electronics: Black Friday and Cyber Monday will continue to offer deep discounts on electronics, but there will also be eye-catching deals the first two weeks of November as retailers try to entice consumers to start their holiday shopping sooner. This will be especially noticeable this year, as the calendar has six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and retailers are expected to kick off their promotional strategies earlier than ever to make up for the lost shopping days.

Clothing and Accessories: The best time to buy apparel and accessories, including shoes, jewelry and handbags, will be Cyber Monday with all the major online retailers offering significant site-wide deals. However, the highest volume of deals will be available from December 15-24. As the days go on, the quantity of deals will go down, but the percentage off will go up.

Food and Wine: In the three days before Christmas, the best discounts will be on food and wine, both of which serve as appropriate last-minute gift options for friends, coworkers and neighbors.

Toys, Games, Sporting Equipment: Although there are great door busters on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there will be triple the amount of deals in this category the first week of December. For those who put off holiday shopping until the last minute, another spike of sales and deals will come around December 20.

“Although Black Friday and Cyber Monday are great days to score a deal this holiday season, we encourage consumers to think outside the Black Friday box and to use this calendar as a reliable shopping guide,” said Loren Bendele, co-founder and President of Savings.com. “There are six fewer shopping days this calendar year, meaning the retail environment will be competitive with leading brands fighting for your dollars. While this is great news for the consumer, it will be important to sift through everything that’s out there and to be confident that you’re getting the best deals possible.”

As we get closer to holiday gift giving, I’ll be checking Savings.com’s new Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales site for coverage of the best Black Friday deals, sales, ads, and door busters from all the leading retailers. The website promises to post over 40,000 coupons from discount and luxury brands for consumers with varying budget levels. How good is that?

Right now, if you’re looking for savings on Halloween costumes, you might want to check out Savings.com. They have some great coupons discounts on costumes.

Score Big at Sales!

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Since 2008, Mary Hall has been the author of The Recessionista®, which is read by thousands of regular readers in over 160 countries. An internationally recognized expert on the art of the living the good life for less, she has been a commentator on local, national, and international radio and TV shows. Her advice has been featured in over 2,000 media outlets, including The New York Times, Reuters, Life & Style magazine, ABC News, NBC News and now The Huffington Post, among many others. Contact Mary at Mary (at) TheRecessionista dot com